Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-10
4 LAUGHING WORLD.
DIFFERENT WAYS TIE NATIONS
HAVE OF SLOWING VISIBILITY.

Tn. Chinese litter. tn. Germans are De-
ub.rmt- the French Spssmodic-Wash-
mrton'. L,nch-The bible aud PUsts'
Use Of the word.
OF the worlds population those who do
not laugh are. it is safe to assume in the
minority. Laughter Is IA language known
to all races in all lands From the re-
sounding "haw haw'' of the male New
Englaudrr To the high strung caChinna-
tiou of the South sea islandtr, there may
bts as wide range Of intunation and eN-
PRECISION aS there is Of chronological posi-
tion. but a. "A rule laughter mean>but
one thinG-the tickling Of the fancy of the
person " hu laughs. six Years ago BeeCher
asked from lecture platform i'll New
York if any Of his hearers had ever heard
a Chinese laugh. the question being
wor,ied i'll way intended I" imply
negative answer That the Celestial can
and does give vent tn his mirthful feel
ings after the manner of other morialS
can readily he stteSted by any one who
has long resided in san Francisco. 1" lie
sure. the Chinese laugh Is. rarely a> hearty
or expressive a. the American or
European. Ii is oftcner a litter than
genuine uutburst of merrimcnt. Thcr"
* little character or force i'll il. As ftr
the Arabian laugh. We hear little "f lis
hilarious ring through the ages Of nurih
in the Old World The Arab is generally
looked upon a. a stolid fellow-a man
likely Ia persist in refusing Ia give one the
benefit Of mirthful appreciation of
joke. even if he saw the point. Travellers
say, however. that he does laugh on occa-
sion but that he must either see good rca-
son for il beforehand or be surprised into
il. lu Persia "A man who laughs Is con-
side-ed effeminate, but free license is said
TO he given to female merriment. Fred
Burnaby has written OF his experiences
among the laughing beauties of n certain
district in the northern part Of that country
He says that under cover Of the good nature
implied by their pretended jollity, they
make bold To fitch everything traveller
may have in his possession. One reads OF
the grave Turk" and the sober Egyp-
tian, but il is not recorded that they never
have moments Of mirth-when the feZ
bobs or the veil shakes under pressure Of
some particularly good thing In Ma
homet himself Christian writers have
noted cor,iiality and jocoseness, ard they
say there was good ringing laugh in the
prophet with all MS serlOusness
An American traveller in Europe re-
marks the Italian laugh as languid but
musical, the German as deliberate, the
French rs spasmodic and uncertain, the
upper class English as well guarded and
not always genuine, the lower class Eng
lish as explosive. the Scotch OF all classes
as hearty. and the irish as rollicking.
There il much that is indicative of char
.S IL. In
in others of strong personality the laugh
is the weakest and most characterless
thing about them II is said Of Nelson
that his laugh was often without spirit.
Napoleon laughed little, and not always
at things in which men Of his command
ing dignity might he expected to find any
thing funny. When Washington cared to
break through his natural reserve lie
could laugh as long and as loud as any
one. but his biographers record but few
instances of the display Of jocularity on
the part of the father Of his country. a
laughing president does not cut very
tiignified figure before one who IS i'm
pressed with the belief that sedateness is
a necessary attribute Of government
chief executive. yet Lincoln made bold 20
laugh whichever he chose, always welcom-
ing good story teller, and relating with
much good feeling droll tales Of his own
life Webster could tell n good story,
often AT his own expense, and join heartily
with his hearers in the laugh at the end.
He had true laugh. There are those
men. as Carlyle has tritely remarked,
whose laugh is as untrue as anything
about them.
In the Bible the words laugh"
daughter and, laughing occur "nly
thirteen times, which, while in keeping
with the gravity Of the text, Is considered
by some commentators as rather singular.
Milton makes little use Of the word in
his works. Shakespeare employs II fre-
quently and often epigrammatically. Ten
nyson's men and women laugh infre-
Quently. although they sometimes smile.
Dickens made a great deal of the laugh,
and often managed thereby 10 gire the
reader a Clew 10 the character Of his men
and women.
Like the careful student Of human ma
ture that she was. George Eliot made note
Of the thousand and one ways in which
character discloses itself through the
medium of the laugh
In this merry age good laugh Is proba-
bly, enjoyed as much as il ever was III the
worlds history. But what would make O
man laugh ten or twenty years ago cannot
he relied upon To do SO now. Practical
jokes, for instance. are no longer popular,
and witticisns of the studied order, even
in comic opera or burlesque, often fail OF
appreciation. And there is the difference
in national taste. A joke that sets an Eng
liShmln or German roaring is nine
times ont Of ten voted tame, if not stupid,
by the American. Our modern wits rely
less upon cap and bells than upon keen
satire and quick repartee. The laugh
thus created is always spontaneous, and
whether in senate chamber or court OF
justice it is irrepressible.
Men betray or commit themselves by
their laughter as often as by anything
Il knew | had only TO wait until he
laughed o,tel if he were lying" said
great English philosopher of o man whom
he had suspected Of falsifying in an i'm
portant matter. The knave's laugh is
said TO be cunning, the FOOLS shallow the
drunkard's coarse, the lunatic's wild and
meaningless. II man would not disclose
his character let him not laugh. He may
simulate good nature and even friendship
by smiling, hut he should beaware OF
audibly expressing his real or pretended
mirth. for there are those-and they are
not necessarily deep students OF human
uature-who know that the true laugh
comes only from the true man.-San
Francisco Chronicle.